. . .
the reality is decaying, dingy cities where underfed people shuffle to and fro in leaky shoes, in patched up nineteenth-century houses that smell always of cabbage and bad lavatories. (p77).
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This does not appear to be a nation that is prospering and enjoying life in its fullest sense. People are starving, their homes are dilapidated, and their clothing is ragged. This poverty is not found solely in the dwelling places of the proles, who are considered to be the lowest in society. It is also present in the lives of the Party members, who are Big Brother's most militant followers. Winston, a member of the Party for many years, describes his apartment building as smelling "of boiled cabbage and old rag mats"(p3). When he is hungry there is "no food in the kitchen except a hunk of dark coloured bread which had got to be saved for tomorrow's breakfast"(p7). The Party members are constantly having their rations decreased and there is a huge need for items as simple as razor blades. .
If a government's primary concern is for the people of the nation, one would expect that they too would be experiencing difficult times similar to those affecting the proles and Party members. This is not the case, however. When Julia brings the sugar, jam and coffee to their hiding place, Winston questions her as to where she obtained it, having been told by Big Brother that such things are no longer available. She replies that "it's all Inner Party stuff. There's nothing those swine don't have, nothing"(p147). The entire time, the government has been withholding this food from them, allowing them to be completely weakened as a result of being underfed. Only a truly evil government would stand by and feast as the people whom they have promised to put first starve before their very eyes. .
